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March 6, 2013
of wabash county inc.
www.thepaperofwabash.com
Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Vol. 35, No. 51
PO Box 603, Wabash, IN 46992 (260) 563-8326
Dawes and Dawes selected as 2012 Wabash County Farm Family of the Year
by Brent Swan The Wabash County Chamber of Commerce recently announced Dawes and Dawes Farm as the 2012 Wabash County Farm Family of the Year. The farm, owned and operated by Wendel and Scott Dawes, is primarily a livestock operation located at the intersection of 400N and 200W. “It is a very humbling experience,” Wendel said. “There are a lot of farmers who are good stewards of the land and take good care of their animals here in Wabash County and to be selected for this award is an honor.” Dawes and
Dawes Farm was started in 1958 after Wendel graduated from high school and married his wife, Janene. After working for his brothers, Wendel decided to build his first building, a chicken house capable of holding 1,000 chickens. From there, the farm has grown to where it is today, annually selling 13,000 hogs and over a million pullets. “We first started off farming some ground,” Scott said. “Back in 1975 we got our first hogs and we have expanded from there. We decided soon after I graduated, to get into the veal calves, where we eventually grew to about 2,100 veal calves. Then as the opportunities went by the wayside in the veal industry, those barns went to loose housed veal calves, then to grain calves, and now they are back in hogs. We’ve continued to follow what opportunities are there in the markets and now we primarily finish out hogs and the poultry.” The ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace is one of the key reasons to the longterm success of
2012 FARM FAMILY OF THE YEAR: The Dawes family was selected by the Wabash County Chamber of Commerce as the Farm Family of the Year. Pictured are (from left): Scott Dawes, Barbara Dawes, Janene Dawes, and Wendel Dawes. The family will be honored at the Salute to Agriculture Banquet March 25, 6:30 p.m., at the Wabash County REMC Building. (photo by Brent Swan) the farm according to Scott. “You have to always look at the opportunities that are out there in the markets,” Scott said. “You have to be able to adapt your operation to reflect where those opportunities lie, whether it be more poultry or more hogs or more of something else.” One such adaptation was the Dawes’ choice to rent out their 300 acres of farm ground instead of farming it themselves. “We decided we had enough livestock that we didn’t really have the time to farm the ground, so we made the decision to have someone farm the ground and we concentrate on the livestock,” Wendel said. “It was a good decision at the
time because corn was $2 or $3 per bushel,” Scott said of the decision to rent out the ground. “We still have the ground to haul manure on. Now, looking back over the past year or two it’s easy to say we should still be farming our ground, but we don’t have to worry about the weather or any of that. We can concentrate solely on the livestock.” By concentrating on their livestock, Wendel and Scott have been able to keep pace with the ever-changing poultry business. “The poultry industry has changed so much in the amount of time we’ve been doing it,” Scott said. “We’ve gone from gathering the eggs by hand with my sister Dana after school to where we are nearly fully auto-
mated now. The pullet people we deal with have been so proactive in the vaccines and ensuring the general health of the birds to prevent some of the health issues pullets have had over the years. Now, they are in here almost every week misting the birds or running water vaccinations to help these birds stay healthy.” In recent years, a push towards organic or free-range farming has hit the livestock markets. According to Scott, one of the easiest ways to deal with this way of thinking is through education. “If I can take people out and show them this is where I keep my hogs, this is what it feels like inside whether it’s 100 degrees (continued on page 5)
SCOTT DAWES (photos on left) checks on his hogs and some of his pullets at Dawes and Dawes Farm, 4075W 200W. A view in between some of the barns at the farm where 13,000 pigs and over a million pullets are raised annually (photo above). (photos by Brent Swan)